Tag Archives: Democrats

Linda Simpson, Republican candidate for Kitsap County
Commissioner, District 2, was not available for comment last night
after election results came in. The initial tally showed her
trailing Democrat Charlotte Garrido by 3,753 votes. The percentage
margin was 52 to 47.

Simpson called today to say she was disappointed and somewhat
stunned by the results.

“I was kind of hoping it would be the other way around,” she
said. “It’s not insurmountable, so there’s a little bit of
hope.”

But an update posted by the Kitsap County Auditor at 5 p.m
showed the margin between the two had barely budged. Garrido is now
leading Simpson by 3,969 votes, with 77,245 votes counted in this
race. Kitsap has 39,000 ballots in hand yet to be counted,
according to the Washington State Auditor, and all are eligible to
vote in the commissioner’s race.

Simpson decided to pursue the commissioner’s seat after seeing
considerable success in the 2010 race for 35th District
representative, position 2. In that race, she ended up losing to
Democrat Fred Finn by a mere 52 votes in Kitsap County. The
totals in the four counties that made up the 35th at the time
(Kitsap, Grays Harbor, Mason and Thurston) gave 29,543 votes to
Finn and 25,724 votes to Simpson, a difference of 3,819
votes.

Simpson today said she went into the homestretch of her campaign
for county commissioner feeling optimistic. Not only was she
getting support from her own party, but non-Republicans had voiced
their intent to cast their ballots for her.

Simpson believes the message that resonated with voters of all
political persuasions was her commitment to represent individual
rights and give a transparent accounting of how taxpayers’ dollars
are spent. On election night, Simpson was almost sure she would
win.

“I really felt good about (the campaign),” she said. “I really
felt quite surprised and dismayed that the results were the
opposite.”

Simpson will wait for the final count to come in before throwing
in the towel. But she’s looking ahead to the possibility of a loss.
Glass-more-than-half-full type that she is, Simpson, a Navy
reservist on leave, said she would take advantage of the down time
if she loses the race.

Since running against Finn, Simpson has lost her leg in a
motorcycle accident, won four medals in the
Warrior Games for injured military members and jumped into the
commissioner’s race last summer, less than a year after her injury.
Simpson is training for the upcoming Warrior Games in Hawaii. She
hopes some day to start a foundation to give financial assistance
to military amputees who, unlike herself, lack funds to cope with
their disabilities. And to be honest, she could use a little “me”
time to relax and regroup, she said.

Simpson does not rule out a future run for public office. “I
wouldn’t say never, but I wouldn’t say it’s a high priority on my
list right now,” she said.

If you are wondering why Democrats held on so well in Washington
while across the nation they did not do well at all, the basic
answer appears to be that they voted here. Democrats in Washington,
despite the dire predictions for them nationally, mailed in their
ballots. A Portland pollster makes that case, as well as the one
contending that Washington is getting bluer.

Some of the information is included in a story about the
county certifying the Nov. 2 election.

Moore Information of Portland, Ore.
sent out an analysis (posted below) suggesting that Dino Rossi,
Republican challenger for the U.S. Senate here, did better among
Republicans than any other Senate candidate in the country. He also
won the vote of independents by big numbers. He lost, according to
Moore, because incumbent U.S. Sen. Patty Murray did even better
among Democrats, and there are more Democrats than there used to be
and they didn’t get too depressed to vote here.

Of course, if you read our story from Nov. 1, this
may not surprise you at all. The last two paragraphs said this:

Turnout was markedly higher in 1998 and 2006. Carl Olson, Kitsap
County Democratic Party chairman, said his party’s get-out-the-vote
effort is tracking as well as it did in 2006, when turnout was 68.2
percent.

“My personal sense tells me there may be some surprises,” he
said, meaning Democrats may do better than expected. Whether the
party’s tracking of those who are solid or lean Democrat means they
voted Democrat again, he said, he doesn’t know.

While Democrats lost ground in Washington, what their voters did
by voting was prevent a party disaster. They maintained control of
both chambers in the state. Locally every Democrat incumbent had a
closer race, but they all won.

My hunch is this also explains why late votes, those counted
after those from election night, did not break Republican as they
have in past elections. Democratic margins, in fact, grew
larger.

State Sen. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor would serve as vice
chairman of the capital budget in the Ways & Means Committee
under a proposal made by Democratic leadership this week. The move
means he would no longer chair the Higher Education & Workforce
Development Committee, but would put him in a key role in the prime
budget-writing committee in the state Senate.

State Sen. Phil Rockefeller, D-Bainbridge Island, would continue
to chair the Environment, Water & Energy Committee.

The full body of Senate Democrats will vote on the proposal when
legislators go to Olympia for meetings on Dec. 7 and 8.

On Tuesday, I Interviewed twin brothers Patrick and Nathan
Griffin-Hall from Port Orchard, 27, who both filed as candidates
for precinct committee officer. Since they live together, they both
filed for the same precinct, but they won’t be facing each other in
the primary because Patrick’s a Republican, Nathan’s a
Democrat.

Just for fun, let’s see how your expectations play out, as you
try to guess which brother is which from the set of attributes and
characteristics below. Just answer Republican or Democrat after the
question.

Before last week’s presentation in
Port Orchard by the state’s Chief Economist, Arun Raha, state Rep.
Larry Seaquist, D-Gig Harbor, mentioned to me his interest in what
the state’s unions were planning to do. Chiefly, it appeared they
were prepared to withhold endorsements from many legislators,
because legislators didn’t make state employees very happy during
the 2010 session.

His interest was well-founded. Instead of funneling money
through the state Democratic party, the unions agreed to be more
specific, which means no candidate in the 35th District gets any
money. Seaquist and his Senate counterpart Derek Kilmer get no
support in the 26th. In the 23rd state Rep. Christine Rolfes and
state Sen. Phil Rockefeller, both Bainbridge Island Democrats, are
also left off the list.

On the money list from districts in this county are state Rep.
Sherry Appleton, D-Poulsbo and Democratic challenger to Jan Angel,
Sumner Schoenike from Gig Harbor.

The first question is how much this matters. We don’t pay
attention to endorsements all that much, especially when they are
so predictable from election to election. This item is newsworthy
because it strays from history, but it isn’t as if the unions are
endorsing Republicans.

Secondly, could this withholding amount to a perverse positive
to some Democrats left out of the union money trail this year? It
may seem a stretch, but could there be enough moderates out there
who would actually see this as a plus, because it offers the
perception that the Democrats left off the gravy train are not
completely beholden to the dreaded “special interests?” Should
Seaquist, Kilmer, Haigh and Finn actually write “thank you” notes
to the unions?

Were I a spinmeister I would probably try to help find a way to
sell this as kind of good news. I wouldn’t put “Not endorsed by the
unions” on my campaign literature, but I might talk about how sad
it is to not get the endorsement but aw shucks the 2010 session
sure required some tough choices and we couldn’t make everyone
happy, not even ones who have consistently written us checks.

The 35th District Democrats met over the weekend and endorsed
all three legislative incumbents. State Sen. Tim Sheldon,
D-Potlatch and state Reps. Fred Finn of Olympia and Kathy Haigh of
Shelton all received the party’s nod for re-election.

That might not merit even a blog post sometimes, but in the 35th
such an endorsement is not a given.

In 2006 the party endorsed Kyle Taylor Lucas
over Sheldon, who has always been registered as a Democrat but
often votes contrary to how the majority in his party would have
him vote.